is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you”
And lets continue to read:
1 Peter 2:1-3
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
So we are born again by the communicated Word (the Bible) which is called the incorruptible seed. You believe the Bible is a dead shell (corruptible seed) whereby God has to breath life in it so as to get the person to believe. But the Bible does not teach that.
A person can cherish the writings of Shakespeare, but cherishing these kinds of works will not save a person.
It’s not enough to just cherish the Bible, but we have to believe that His words are spirit and they are life.
This is what it means to be born again by water. See Ephesians 5:25-27 and 1 Peter 1:23-25.
2 Kings 18:4 is an example in God’s Word showing how they took the serpent on the pole (the symbol that pointed ahead to Christ) beyond God’s instructions. They were going outside of what God’s Word said and this is a story showing how we are not to go beyond what God says and make idols, etcetera. This in no way proves that the Bible is an empty shell until God comes and breathes life into those words. The words themselves are inspired by God and they are like a hammer and like fire. God always abides by His word or words. God’s words are life giving. But a person has to RECEIVE those words into their heart in order for those words to have any spiritual effect upon the person.
The parable of the sower gives this example. It shows that the seed is the Word of God (Luke 8:11), and according to the Parable of the Weeds, the sower is the Son of Man (Jesus) (See: Matthew 13:37). So we know that the seed is the Communicated Word of God in the Parable of the Sower. The seed grew into a healthy living plant. The Word of God has to grow in our hearts. But if we do not believe any portion of Scripture that is life giving, those words will be stolen out of hear by the devil before we have a chance to let that Word from God take root in our hearts. For whatever you don’t believe, the enemy will take it away from you. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and wickedness in high places (2 Corinthians 10:4). We are in a spiritual war, and the Word is spiritual all on it’s own. This is why Satan seeks to corrupt God’s words and we see that with Modern bibles.